The present invention relates to a method of controlling a display and a display control device for a copying machine.
In the conventional copying machines, there is a method structured in such a manner that the expression of the picture words using dots is controlled by a microcomputer and its control program is developed using only one-dimensional absolute address position information.
However, it needs a considerable quantity of manual calculations for the purpose of obtaining the one-dimensional absolute address position information upon the picture words since the control program is developed using only the one-dimensional absolute address position information. Therefore, it leads to a fact that a multiplicity of input and calculation errors inevitably occur at the time of inputting the one-dimensional absolute address position information. Furthermore, since such one-dimensional absolute address positions cannot be grasped intuitively, the pointing out and correction of such errors need a considerably elongated time to be taken. As a result, the development efficiency has not been insufficient.
Recently, the function of copying machines has been varied, and thereby handling the control panel thereof becomes too complicated.
However, if a great number of operation buttons and displays are disposed on the control panel to correspond to the thus-varied functions, a user who is not accustomed to handle this copying machine feels difficult to handle it and such machine becomes extremely difficult to be used. To this end, there are machines of the type arranged in such a manner that each of the keys are arranged to corresponds to a plurality of commands to be selectively used for the purpose of decrease the number of the keys. However, the machine of the type described above becomes further difficult to be handled by the user who is not accustomed to them, causing the operability to deteriorate.
In the actual use of the copying machines for which thus-varied functions have been provided, there is a tendency that only a limited number of the functions are frequently used and special functions tend to be rarely used even if an operator who is skilled in handling it. Accordingly, the structure arranged in such a manner that all of the keys and so on are disposed on the operation panel as to be always operated at needs is not advantageous for all of the users. On the contrary, the operability and the like deteriorate if the operator is not skilled in handling the copying machine.
As known, there are structures arranged in such a manner that the surface of a display such as cathode ray tube (CRT) or that of a liquid crystal display (LCD) is directly pushed at the time of performing the switching operation with the display of the same observed.
Therefore, a touch panel is conventionally used.
That is, such a touch panel comprises: a portion to be pushed; and a support portion, which are disposed away from each other by sandwiching therebetween glass beads or wires made of an insulating material in a manner of, for example, a matrix configuration.
The above-described portion to be pushed comprises: a flexible layer made of transparent resin; and an electrode layer disposed on the surface which opposes the surface which is arranged to be pushed by the operator's finger transparent material such as glass; and an electrode layer layered on the surface of this substrate layer confronting the above-described electrode layer of the portion to be pushed.
The thus-structured touch panel is arranged to be switched on or off by pushing a needed position for example with observing the image on the cathode ray tube as a result of an electric connection established by the contact between the electrode in the portion to be pushed and that of the support portion since the flexible layer in the portion to be pushed can be deformed.
In order to easily deform the flexible layer of above-described type of the portion to be pushed, some touch panels are arranged in such a manner that the thickness of the flexible layer is made considerably thin. It can lead to a fact that circuits connected to the touch panel can be broken due to a static electricity charged to a high potential when any charge body is brought into contact with the surface of the touch panel.
That is, when such a charged body is brought into contact with the touch panel, the static electricity from this charged body can discharge through each of the electrode layers, causing a so-called ground discharge phenomenon to occur.
Furthermore, the copying machines are arranged in such a manner that messages such as "Please wait", "You can copy", or the like are displayed in the display portion of the control panel by applying light from the reverse side (lower side) of printed characters by using LEDs or the like. In addition, the number of paper sheets to be set and the number of the copies are arranged to be displayed by using, for example, an LED of 7 segments. Therefore, in the conventional structure of the display portion of the type described above, the contents of the messages upon the state of the copying machine which can be displayed have been limited to a poor level such as the above-described messages "Please wait" and "You can copy". The other contents to be displayed are arranged to be expressed by using picture words representing a paper end mark and a toner end mark and so on. However, the expression using the picture words is difficult for a general users to understand them.
Therefore, there recently are copying machines of the type arranged in such a manner that a full-dot liquid crystal display (LCD) is used to serve as the display in the control panel of the copying machine as to realize a variety of expressions. In such a display, major parts thereof are arranged to serve as display areas upon the copy modes such as sorter, binding margin, double side, magnification, paper, density or the like. Furthermore, this display as well serves as input means of a type of touch switch. On the other hand, a minor part of this display is arranged to be a portion to display the messages, the number of paper sheets to be set, and the number of copies. Since this display is arranged to be a type full-dot display, a variety of messages such as "Warming up", "You can copy", "Copying", "Supply paper" and so on can be displayed in the message display areas. However, since the number of characters which can be displayed in the limited display area is limited, the state of the copying machine cannot be always properly indicated by the messages. There arises problems that the messages are inevitably limited to short messages.